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Archive for ‘Showbiz&Stars’

Deep in the heart of Romania, in the Mureş County, Gerard Depardieu is undertaking a rare enterprise: the remake of one of the gems of Romanian film-making, “The Death of Ipu”, based on a short story by Titus Popovici. The plot takes us to the days of the German retreat from Romania, in late 1944, as Romanian and Soviet troops were pushing West. A German soldier is killed by partisans in a Romanian village and the German commander announces reprisals against the civilians. The village mayor, priest, policeman, teacher and notary have their wives arrange a feast for the village “under-dog”, a man named Ipu, in an against-the-clock attempt to persuade him to take the blame for the entire village.

Almost 30 persons, among which a German citizen and a TV executive from Bucharest have been taken into custody on Thursday, in connection with a male luxury prostitution ring. Zender Klaus, a German national living in Romania for 11 years, is accused of organising the encounters between gay men and male prostitutes – meetings attended, among others, by a journalist and a football player. Prosecutors claim that young men and boys would be brought to a villa in Snagov, close to Bucharest, to entertain other gay men in all-out orgies. These parties would take place on week-ends, mostly, fact confirmed by several neighbours who claim to have seen lots of men coming and going from the house.

Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina, the two Romanian artists behind the international dance hit “Stereo Love”, have good reasons to celebrate. Their song was not only awarded the “Top Dance Song” distinction at the Billboard Music Awards 2011 in Las Vegas, but it also reached an amazing number of hits on Youtube: more than 160 million people watched it, most of them playing the official version of the video clip. The jury chose to award the two Romanians’ song over two nominations of none other than Lady Gaga. The song itself has an intricate story that links Romania to a former Soviet republic, Azerbadjan.

Local media and bloggers in the Republic of Moldova have been reporting of an unusually looking BMW X5 parked in several locations throughout the country’s capital city, Chişinău. The car appears to be gold plated and it was one of the media’s “juiciest” scoops on Tuesday, April the 19th. The owner of the BMW has, so far, been unnamed. Tabloid newspapers and websites both in Moldova and in neighbouring Romania have displayed the incredible photographs that have prompted numerous comments of disbelief.

Scheduled to take place on Sunday, April the 17th, in Braşov, Romania, the “Mister Gay Europe 2011” pageant is under threat from the “New Right Wing” movement and heavily criticized by the Romanian Orthodox Church. “We don’t care what these people do at home, in their bedrooms, but we are totally against any public display of their lifestyle and it is against that display, planned to take place in the Bran Castle, that we are planning to make a stand”, said Tudor Ionescu, the president of the New Right Wing. “Christianity will always react to such events… Organizing this pageant during the Great Lent is a direct insult to Christianity, just like homosexuality is an insult to God”, said father Cristian Grigoraşi, an Orthodox priest, in an interview published on the New Right Wing movement’s web page. “Homosexuality is a disease, either innate or contracted because of propaganda”, added the priest.

And now Romania’s designated Eurovision Song Contest is now short of the 100.000 Euros needed to sign up for the competition. His sponsors have backed out of the previous deal, after David Bryan’s sexually charged internet conversation was published by a Romanian tabloid. The Romanian organizers decided not to pull him from the contest, but he may be eliminated from the start because they lack the money.

Football player Adrian Mutu was in close relations with one of Romania’s suspected organized crime leaders, Nuredin Beinur. The latter is now standing trial, accused on several counts of blackmail, extortion and abuse. A telephone conversation between Mutu and Beinur, recorded by the secret services in May 2010, reveals that Mutu would receive gratuities at Beinur’s restaurant in Constanţa, by the Black Sea.

Cancan claims they have an exact copy of the lines exchanged (Photo: Cancan)

David Bryan, who will represent Romania in the Eurovision song contest of 2011, is in the middle of an embarassing sexual row, after Romanian tabloid Cancan published an alleged sexual conversation attributed to the singer and to a young lady from the same country. David Bryan, frontman of Hotel FM, allegedly met the woman online and started a very sexually charged conversation, mostly conducted in English, while his official girlfriend was reportedly sleeping in the next room. According to Cancan, the singer described to the young woman details of how he would like to sexually engage her, showed her his genitalia on a webcam and even masturbated.

Around 1.000 volunteers from ten countries have gathered in Bucharest in protest against homeopathic treatments. In order to prove their claim that these remedies are nothing more of a hoax, they overdosed themselves publicly with a homeopathic sleep-inducing solution. According to them, such treatments are nothing but water with sugar.

Anatolie Ciumac, a Moldovan national residing in Romania, was held on Thursday by Romanian prosecutors, following a request filed by Spanish authorities. He was eventually released, pending a ruling over his arrest by the Bucharest Court of Appeal. Ciumac, a professional fighter with connections to the crime underworld, is the subject of an international arrest warrant. He stands accused of an incident occured in 2002, in a Spanish penitentiary. He has a long record of violent incidents both in Romania and abroad. Among them, he tried to litterally bin a TV presenter while being a guest in a live show.